Kolkata: The West Bengal Panchayat (Second Amendment) Bill has been passed in the state Assembly on Friday to make provisions for maintaining simultaneous membership to the Legislative Assembly, Parliament and panchayats by members of panchayat samitis and zilla parishads.
The Bill has been amended "for ensuring that a member of a panchayat samiti holding simultaneous memberships of the House of the People or the Legislative Assembly shall not be removed from the office if he is absent in three consecutive meetings of the panchayat samiti".
The amendment has also ensured omission of the "whole time functionary" in respect to a member being elected as sabhadipati or sahakari sabhadipati.
It specifies that members of the House of the People and the state Legislative Assembly, not being sabhadipati or sahakari sabhadipati of zilla parishad, are elected from a constituency comprising the Block, ex-officio".
A member of the House of the People and the state Legislative Assembly, who is not a minister, is an ex-officio member of the zilla parishad.
Subrata Mukherjee, the state Panchayat minister, said: "With the introduction of the Bill, the scope of work from the MLAs will increase and they can work more for the benefits of the common people."
He added that this would have been done earlier as it would help in better functioning of the system in the panchayat level.
"I assure that the step will prove to be a good one in the future as an MLA can easily get involved and work for the panchayat," he said.